


Knot

by sabinelagrande



Category: Iron Man (2008)
Genre: Backstory, Flirting, Gen, Loss, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-28
Updated: 2008-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-06 10:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On little things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knot

"Your tie drives me crazy," Pepper tells him, trying to tug it back into place.

"Not the first time I've heard that," he fires back.

"That's not what I meant," she replies, sounding annoyed, but smiling. "I can't make it straight."

He looks at his tie in the hand mirror. The four-in-hand knot is asymmetrical, of course, but it's supposed to be. It's easy, it's fast, and he can tie it while running from hotel security without even looking (speaking from experience). He's been doing it that way since college, and it fits him, really.

It's not the way he learned it, though. Tony is familiar with the idea that fathers are supposed to teach their sons about all sorts of manly hygiene things like shaving and ties, but Tony's father was way more interested in teaching him about things like semiconductors and motorcycles.

It was Obadiah that taught him instead, setting him on the sink and showing him how to cross and twist and tighten to make a knot. Obadiah always wore his ties with big, slow, solid full Windsors, perfectly symmetrical, always appropriate.

"Come on," he cajoles, hiding the dull ache in his chest behind a flirty grin. He pulls his tie purposefully askew, tightening the small knot to make it even smaller. "Not even the Duke of Windsor liked the Windsor knot."

Pepper just rolls her eyes and smiles, like she always does.


End file.
